Your smartphone can be a powerful astronomy accessory during an observing session.

Credit: iStock

By combining GPS positioning and an accelerometer, your phone can tell not only where you are on the planet, but exactly where you’re pointing it; cue planetarium apps that show you exactly what you’re looking at in the night sky.

There are apps to help you plan observing sessions, find satellites and the International Space Station.

There are apps that aid astrophotography, and provide the latest astronomical updates.

No app goes as deep as SkySafari 5 Pro. On its own it’s a great astronomy app: you can create observing lists, check celestial coordinates, get ISS/Iridium satellite notifications, view images from the Digitized Sky Survey, and even explore an intergalactic map of where an observing target is in the Universe relative to the Sun.

However, this app is both expensive, and huge in terms of file size. Using it to remotely control a computerised Go-To telescope requires a separate adaptor to let the app communicate with the setup, which can cost several hundred pounds.

Of the many planetarium apps, there are few audio guides or augmented reality offerings that overlay information directly onto the night sky. This one is both.

For best results it should be used with a Universe2go star viewer (£79); insert a regular-sized phone into the casing and look through the viewer to see star names and constellation boundaries overlaid onto the real night sky.

Aim the virtual target at a specific object and an audio narration begins. Without the viewer you can put the app into planetarium mode on a phone or tablet and hear the same audio.

Celestron’s SkyPortal can be used to wirelessly control models from both the brand’s NextStar Evolution line-up of Schmidt-Cassegrain telescopes, or with any computerized Celestron telescope when used with a SkyPortal Wi-Fi module (£120).

After an easy pairing and alignment process the app allows your phone to act as a wireless hand controller; tapping an object on the phone screen for your scope to centre in the eyepiece.

At its core is a great planetarium app, with four hours of audio commentary – and it’s available to download for free.

But it’s the ‘Scope Sites’ section that impresses most, allowing users to both save favourite observing locations and search for new ones. It even includes locations where amateur astronomers are regulars, such as observatories and officially designated dark-sky sites.

Lastly, a dark-sky map allows you to see how much light pollution there is at a site.

Observing aids

Stellarium Mobile Sky Map

Price: £2.99/£2.19/£1.49

Platform: iOS/Android/Windows Phone

Pros: Realistic views; red-light mode; light-pollution slider

Cons: Mostly technical data on stars

This planetarium app from the creators of the original and free Stellarium computer software impresses by keeping it real. As well as a virtual horizon, it has an option to mimic what you can see with the naked eye, and even a light pollution adjuster.

Overlays of the constellation lines, and equatorial and azimuthal grids can be superimposed. There’s also an easy-to-reach red-light mode and an unexpected section on the star lore of other cultures, including Inuit, Navajo and Aztec.

If you want to find a man-made object in orbit, you’ve come to the right place.

Anyone wanting to see the ISS, a bright satellite or witness an Iridium flare probably already knows about the excellent Heavens-Above website; this app uses the same prediction engine to make calculations specific to your GPS position.

It does so in a basic but thorough manner, with a list of events visible that night, as well as a dedicated section for each genre of object.

This beautifully designed app has a useful time travel mode: touch the clock in the top-right corner then drag a finger up the side of the screen and the night sky goes into fast-forward, at any speed you desire.

That’s useful for planning long (and future) observing sessions, as is the Sky Live page, which gives at-a-glance rise and set times for planets and the Moon. However, detailed information on constellations, deep-sky objects, planets and satellites will all cost you extra.

Astrophotography

Adobe Photoshop Express

Price: Free

Platform: iOS/Android/Windows Phone

Pros: Effective noise reduction

Cons: Fewer options than desktop version

If you’re doing astrophotography or creating nightscapes using a camera with Wi-Fi, this app version of Photoshop makes a good stand-in for the desktop software so popular with astro imagers, letting you edit and check photos on the go.

Key features include sharpen, clarity and exposure sliders, but most useful is a clever noise reduction feature that automatically zooms-in on the image.

It also includes shortcuts to upload finished images to everything from Adobe’s Creative Cloud to social media.

Of the many apps that allow you to take images in low light conditions, NightCap Pro is the most astrophotography centred.

The app gives you the manual control to take DSLR-like nighttime photographs using a phone camera; presets include stars, the ISS and meteors; there’s even a star trails mode.

The ISO goes all the way up to 6400, there’s built-in noise reduction and an intervalometer for night sky timelapses, and it even records photos as TIFF files. All that’s needed alongside it is a phone holder, a tripod, and clear skies.

Want to throw rocks at Curiosity? You can with this well-thought-out space ‘playscape’ for kids, produced by some talented illustrators and animators.

It gives a valuable perspective on the Solar System and its planets through simple games and close-up views. Designed for kids from four years old and up, it offers an interactive journey to the planets, their moons, and the Sun, but it’s all done through show and play.

There are no captions, no spoken words, just great animation and a suitably creative soundscape.

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